


are you lonesome tonight?

by aelisheva



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Pre-Canon, hazel and cha-cha on a mission to ensure that the "challenger" shuttle explodes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-08
Updated: 2019-06-08
Packaged: 2020-04-23 00:11:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19139668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aelisheva/pseuds/aelisheva
Summary: Even time-traveling temporal assassins get homesick. And over the weirdest things, too -- like donuts.





	are you lonesome tonight?

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Summer Of Seven prompt "Glazed."

January 21st, 1986 in Titusville, Florida. It was a week before the space shuttle  _ Challenger _ was supposed to explode, and Cha-Cha was huddled under a clump of blankets in her motel room. 

 

Suddenly, Hazel came in holding hot tea and fresh-baked donuts for the two of them. Cha-Cha let out a happy sigh and took the bag from him after he’d taken his fill. 

 

“We have seven days before the explosion is supposed to happen in Cape Canaveral,” she noted. “And we can’t get rid of that NASA technician if we freeze to death.”

 

“Agreed,” Hazel said before joining her in toasting their lidded plastic cups.

 

After taking a swig, Cha-Cha reached into the plastic bag and pulled out a white powdered donut, just like she’d asked for. She took a bite and -- _ why is this happening. _

 

It tasted _ just _ like the ones they’d made at Batista’s Bakery back home. How did they transport that  _ exact  _ recipe from  _ turn-of-the-century New York City _ to here?

 

“Uh, Cha-Cha, you’re crushing your donut.”

 

She looked down at her powdery white hand. “Am I? Shit! _Shit,_ I really shouldn’t be doing that..” She quickly gathered the crumbs on the paper bag, and squished them back together --

 

“Cha-Cha, is everything alright?”

 

“Yes -- I mean, no -- I mean…” She took a deep breath. “This donut tastes exactly like the ones my sister Josie and I would get as a kid back in New York City. Every Friday right after school ended, we’d go over to Batista’s Bakery and ---” She sniffled. “It’s probably out of business by now. It’s probably a parking lot or something.” She wiped away a tear with her sleeve, so she wouldn’t get sugar all over her face. “Sorry. It’s just -- I didn’t realize until  _ just now  _ how much I miss home. I’ll never get to go back there with Josie or my parents or any of my friends ever again.”

 

Hazel put down his glazed donut on a napkin. “What was it like in your home time?”

 

Cha-Cha shook her head. “Don’t start with that. It’s just going to make me cry more.”

 

_ “And _ it’ll let you get out all of your worries. Tell me, I really want to know.”

 

Cha-Cha took another shaky breath. “Okay. Right before I left home, I was a nightclub singer in 1928. Ever since I was a kid, I always wanted to be a famous singer. Josie was more into ballet, but sometimes she’d sing backup when we were kids,” she laughed.

 

“You  _ sing?  _ Where did you perform?”

 

Cha-Cha shrugged. “Everywhere, really. Bars, jazz clubs, you name it… ‘Come hear the marvelous melodies of Little Miss Mary!’ Oh -- before I asked the Commission to give me a codename, my real name was Mary.”

 

“Before I got my codename, I was Cameron,” Hazel added. “I was a florist in 1961 Chicago. My family owned the shop, actually. We sold bouquets, centerpieces, all of that. I always put so much effort into the window displays. One Valentine’s Day, I stuffed the window to the  _ brim _ with red roses.”

 

“That sounds really pretty, Hazel…..So the flower shop was run by your entire family.” She laughed. “Are you sure it wasn’t a front for the mafia or anything?”

 

Hazel shoved her. “I can neither confirm nor deny that. But  _ whatever  _ we did in the storeroom of that flower shop, I miss it every single day.” Hazel held out both arms. Cha-Cha nodded, and he leaned the two of them into a soft hug.

 

“I miss home too,” Cha-Cha admitted. “But we can never go back. If they catch us making ‘unauthorized trips’ back, they’d have us both killed. Or eliminated. Or whatever _ they _ call it,” she spat. 

 

“If we want to feel like we’re back home, we have to find whatever little ties we can,” Hazel sighed. 

 

Suddenly, Cha-Cha tapped Hazel’s shoulder. The hug broke apart as Hazel started at his excited partner. “Cha-Cha, what’s going on now?”

 

“We have seven days to kill this lady, right? That gives us both plenty of time to reminisce.”

 

\----

 

One drive to the local mall later, Hazel and Cha-Cha had created a makeshift stage in their motel room, right in front of the side window. Both still wore their Commission uniforms, but Hazel wore a dark green bowler hat and Cha-Cha wore a black top hat and carried a (plastic) cane. 

 

Hazel, while making trumpet noises with his mouth, unwrapped a $3.00 bouquet of roses, and started tossing petals on the floor around Cha-Cha. “Presenting for one night only! The marvelous melodies of Little Miss Mary!” He took their new cassette tape and put it in. 

 

Cha-Cha laughed and swished around the window curtain behind her. She then cleared her throat and began to sing.  _ “Are you lonesome tonight? Do you miss me tonight --” _

  
Soon, Hazel was humming in behind her on backup, waving around spare rose flowers in his hands. He sang  _ way _ worse than Josie ever did, Cha-Cha thought to herself, but it was still the first time she’d felt like a kid again in a while.

**Author's Note:**

> 1 comment = 1 hug for cha-cha
> 
> historical note: "are you lonesome tonight?" is a song known the most by elvis presley's 1960 cover, but it was originally released in 1927.


End file.
